Made by a Fabricista: Thread Theory's Jedediah Pants

I sewed man pants! This is officially my annual unselfish sewing, and it's for my husband. Ain't he lucky?!! I used Thread Theory's Jedediah Pants pattern for these. Last year I sewed him a really awesome pair of cargo shorts with a Green Pepper pattern that he wears all the time. The year before it was a button up shirt. What do men (generally) want in handmade clothes? I feel like it's to have the clothes look absolutely ready-to-wear, like they went to a department store and picked the garment up, not sewn by his (freakishly amazing) wife in their basement.

These are 'slim fit' pants, something my husband generally isn't a fan of for himself. So after musling his actual size (halfway between 34 and 36), the fit was, of course, slim, The waist was a bit smaller then he liked, the calves were close fitting (I'd say his calves are average in size) and it was just small overall for his taste. So I just went up one whole size without a muslin and hoped for the best. It worked out quite well. They look so much like his RTW pants he wears already. I removed above three inches from the length, his inseam is a terribly average 32" when he buys clothing. I did just remove the length from the bottom as opposed to the "lengthen/shorten here" line on the tissue pattern.

To be honest, I think the waist ended up a tad large for him but he wears belts anyhow. He has yet to wear them to work, so we'll see how they feel on a normal day of wear this week. I used a light beige cotton twill from Fabric Mart, which folks have bought all of it up already, but there are some great options for these pants in the Twill category. This cotton twill here looks basically identical to what I sewed with.

I got wild and crazy. I used a cotton shirting with some decorative print on it for the pocketing. That stuff was from one of those lovely bundle s I ordered some weeks back from Fabric Mart when I last placed an order.

Overall, the directions are pretty good for this pattern. The last time I sewed a zipper fly was a year ago with those cargo shorts I sewed for him. I wanted my hand held through the process, loads of visuals and a video. And oh my goodness, there is a whole blog post AND video on Thread Theory's blog on how to install/sew the zipper fly. You can see the entire sewalong here.

I find pants sewing a relatively easy process. It took about 6 hours total sewing this final product up, including sewing, ripping and re-sewing the waistband (I lined it up all wrong, ugh!) I really like the details like the reinforced stitching on the pocket corners, the flat fell seams for added strength and the overall RTW look they have. Success!! Man pants!!!

Happy Sewing!!

~Kathy
Kathy Sews

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